Cost-Efficient Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis in Industrial Practice

To guarantee real-time behavior of an embedded application, a schedulability analysis can be used. Such an analysis requires the worst case execution time (WCET) of the application. While several academic approaches to conservatively bound the WCET have been proposed in the last decade, common practice in industry remains simulation and software tests. One reason is that industrial requirements are not sufficiently addressed by academic approaches. In this paper we identify important industrial requirements for WCET-analysis tools. Then, we describe the methodology of a previously developed WCET-analysis approach and revise important aspects of its methodology and its implementation to address key industrial requirements. In a large-scale case study the WCET-analysis tool is applied to a safety-critical automotive control application to evaluate the applicability of the tool. Furthermore, the faced challenges and the re-targeting costs for a new processor are discussed.